Reading methods

Have you watched a movie, or drama that was originally written in a book? If so, you are the part of twenty-first century’s change in culture. As technology dramatically improve, our ways of reading a certain literature changed. To name them chronologically, we listened to cassette tapes, compact discs, watched the literature with VCR, DVDs and now we have 3D movie theatres and even live broadcast of 3D soccer game! Moreover, it’s not just technology that changed, but culture itself also went through change. We live faster, grow impatient, and have less interaction between each other. Moreover society becomes customized but ironically globalized. These dramatic changes can be explained with alternative ways of reading because our ways of living and studying changed.

New methods of reading have altered our daily life. What is the first thing you do when you wake up? Go to bath? Most of people around me boot their computers or check there cell phone to see if somebody have texted or called them overnight. We live in a busy community; everything has to be quick and brief. Since technology took large step and allowed us to write and communicate faster, our ways of working have altered .For example, it is necessary to know how to do excel and powerpoint even draw figures using computer for most of the jobs. Doing so, you can make stronger emphasis and easier understanding. These benefits come in not only working but also in communicating. You can fax certain document or scan them to computer and email. Before computers our “ancestors” had to write them by hand, and send a mail. In addition, this new technology has changed our way of life as well. We spend more time watching T.V. or movie, and musical or drama grow obscures. In addition, almost every famous literature have itself become a film. With the innovation of films, we are able get vivid view of the scene and receive a better understanding of the story. Not only in film but in job as well we have countless jobs that are along the movie and T.V. station but the need for publishing has not increased much.

America is not a Melting Pot (part 1)

The United States has been called a melting pot many times because of the merging of many cultures, but personally, I think the US is no where near being a melting pot. A melting pot refers to like a structure where many thing blends together and the differences are no longer visible. It seems to be more like a salad bowl. We can easily spot out the different cultures that lie within the United States.

In our everyday life of someone who lives in a city, they can easily walk down the street and hear a wide variety of languages. There are many bilingual people in the United States. Language is a key part of culture and as long as other languages exist in America, then there are also other cultures present. The influx of languages into the United States makes enriches the experience of living in the US.

Unlike past, America is more harmonious in race, culture, and even in languages. They didn’t transform one traditional food to Americanized name and yet even if they have hard time pronouncing it, they call its original name. Some languages are sometimes Romanized into English, but the pronunciation is still off. It is hard to Romanize different languages to one language. Therefore, it is really hard to say American is a melting pot because different cultures in America may not be able to merge into a single culture.

Heroes

In fiction heroes are often portrayed as gallant figures with a strong sense of justice. They often appear to save damsels in distress of to protect a village from a ruthless villains. Often, these heroes are caught breaking the laws to carry out their ideals. The laws are there to keep order and should not be an exception to anyone. Heroes are often seen killing, stealing, and even breaking into other people's property. Is this really a heroic thing to do?

Robin is a folk hero that many people knows about. He is known for stealing money from the rich and giving it to the poor. He lives in the forest with his merry men. This sounds an awful lot like the action of brigands. They live in the wood and sometimes come out to steal. Surely they must have kept some of their stolen loot for themselves. People regard him as a hero even though he breaks into other people's property and steals money from them. His intentions may seem right but his actions are no where near ethical.

The reason why people view him as a hero is because his actions benefits him. The people that are robbed by him sees him as a villain. Robin Hood justifies his action by thinking that the rich people gets their money from the poor so him stealing it back is an okay thing to do. This reasoning is unethical, he is fighting fire with fire meaning he is no better than the rich people.

We today view Robin Hood as a hero because a majority of us are in less than satisfying conditions. We can relate to the poor people of the villages Robin Hood helped. Robin Hood's actions benefited lots of people in need so his title as hero. Robin Hood may be a hero but he is also a thief. No man should be above the law, otherwise, laws are meaningless words that can be broken with good reasons.

Celestial life

Can life on other planets exist? Since the dawn of times, our ancestors have looked into the sky with great wonders. As science progress, the dreams of celestial life forms are slowly shattering. Planets that meet the conditions for life are a scarce find in the universe. There are many that believe that the earth is unique. With the ways things are looking, life is impossible to find even if it is existing.

In the past century, technological advances have allowed us to look thousands of mile into space with one glance. With this we are allow to view celestial bodies and study them with ease. With this innovation also came disappointment, as we became more developed in astronomy, we also became more reluctant to believe in celestial life as we find more compelling evidence that proves that supposedly barren planets are actually; barren planets.

Many continue to hold high hopes and believe that these readings are untrue. The speed of light is the fastest anything could travel according to Einstein. The light we receive from our own sun takes days to reach us. This means that it could an image we see in space could be from a few centuries to a few million years late depending on how far away it is.

One light year is 5.8 trillion miles. It takes about 1 year for light to travel one light year. The closest galaxy to the milky galaxy is the Andromeda galaxy which is about 2.2 million light years away. This means anything we view in the Andromeda is 2.2 million years late. This means life could have developed there without our knowing and this also means that we have no hope of finding life in “real time” during our life span.

The possibility of life is shrouded in a never ending fog. We may never determine if any planets meet the conditions for life. Our path to discovering is blocked by two obstacle, time and space, which are essentially forces which humans cannot hope to take down and control.

The Reason for Beauty

Ever since the 1970s, the popularity of cosmetic surgery has risen as new innovations and advancements to cosmetic surgery arose. Because of the media, many people have become more self conscious about themselves and begin to worry more about their body and go through many difficulties in order to improve their physical appearances.

Most of teenagers are easily influenced by the media. They are also in a state of confusion and in order to be popular, they will do anything to look like a figure on TV. They are constantly exposed to the generic beauty that the media promotes and soon they begin to notice flaws that they might have and begin to worry.

Aside from the media, teenagers may also get influenced by their friends and maybe even their family. Friends and peers are often very critical about appearance. On the school yard, it is hard not to see a situation where one student calls another student ugly. Family is no exception on to the "reasons to get cosmetic surgery list." There have been many situations in which a middle-aged mother will encourage their daughters to have plastic surgery in order to accomplish the dreams that they themselves could not accomplish.

Confidence plays a very important role in the success of cosmetic surgery. The human body is naturally not perfect but there are few people who can come to term with this. The media and public has been constantly attacking everyone with the idea that beauty is everything. with phrases like "your lucky your pretty," one can only assume that beautiful people have a high standards in society and it is not rare how some people would take this phrase seriously and try to make it apply to them.

There is an old Chinese saying stating that “our bodies are gifts from out parents.” We should not change our body on a whim just because of others. People are very self conscious and will change their bodies by cosmetic surgery till they satisfied. Self confidence is not something that can be bought with money or received by changing a certain body part. Confidence stems from both mind and body. The lack of confidence is in the mind, it does not only concern physical appearances

Where is this Generation Going

Whoever coined up the term “this generation is going to hell” must have been thinking about our current one. There are so many crimes done by teenagers. Shoplifting, violence, murder; these are just some of the crimes that kids these days are doing. There has even been a person as young as 10 charged for rape. I, being a teenager, can personally see how much the future generation is changing. When I started high school, everyone had respect for themselves and others no matter how mean they act. But in my senior year of high schools, I noticed that all the freshmen and sophomores who had enter the school were discourteous towards everyone. I was shocked to see that there were reports of a group of freshmen violently bullying a senior who was well known for being a jock.

The thoughts of people attacking someone who was 4 years their senior was shocking. I cannot imagine how I would be if I were a freshmen in this time period. I do not think I could have survived unscathed. I am glad I was started school during a better time. I think that all of this negative behavior must have stem from the media. All this modern rap that appears on the TV and the internet is a disgrace to human kind. Rappers these days rap about vulgar topics such as sex and making money through organized crimes. To make it worse, these songs are all directed towards the younger population. Monkey see monkey do and we humans are as close to monkeys than any other species. I can only imagine how the future generations will turn out. At this rate there will be no hopes for new innovations.

War of the Worlds

H.G. Wells’ classic sci-fi story, War of the Worlds was thrilling and remained exciting to many people throughout the 20th century. In 2005, people decided to revive this classic and put it in the theaters. This was a mistake. The director of this movie was the legendary Steven Spielberg. Granted, most of his movies are above average but this movie was not part of his greater works. With such a great plot, director, and actors such as Tom Cruise in this movie, one would expect it to be a great movie.

War of the Worlds will be a unforgettable event in literary history. It was broadcast on the radio for the first time in October 30, 1938. The events from the original War of the Worlds was so frightening that it literally scared people out of their houses; the most that the film War of the Worlds provided was an occasional loud boom that shocked people. An original voice recorded episode of War of the Worlds easily beat a film production of the novel which cost 132 million dollars.
The movie begins with a dull and gloomy mood and it quickly introduces an average American man as the protagonist. The film quickly lays out the main character’s back story and then lets the invasion begin. This is where the movie climaxes but also plateaus. The remaining plot of the story could easily be inferred. The plot climaxes once again towards the end of the film but once again, it sharply plateaus when a bad ending emerges. Due to such the film having such a great variation from the novel, one may expect a different ending but unfortunately, one was not given. The protagonist in the novel had a strong motive to survive; to see his love once again. The protagonist in the film however had a much less significant goal; to return his kids to their mother.

War of the Worlds was a legendary classic to both the new and old generation of readers. Because of this, when one watches this film they have high expectations, expectations that this film failed to meet. For starters, the actors in this movie were, to be blunt, bad. The reactions that they put on during the action sequences and emotional sequences were fake and unnatural. Viewers cannot relate to such performance. The fact that they used a skilled actor such as Tom Cruise to act with other inexperienced actors was another mistake. His skills dwarfed their acting skills and made it plainly visible how bad the acting was.

Honestly, the movie is not so bad, the first 60 minutes were tolerable and maybe even exciting but the final 73 minutes were horrible. The effects were overdone and cheesy. Perhaps expectations for this movie were set to high, a level that it simply could not meet. After one hundred seventeen minutes of watching this movie, anyone who has not read the novel will not read the novel.


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Great Steps of College

College and high school is two separate experiences. Originally, I assumed college was just a slightly more intense version of high school but I was wrong. In high school, I could easily receive an A or B grade in a class with minimal effort, but upon entering college, this assumption led me to doing poorly the first half of my first semester. By the time I caught up to this, it was too late to get the 4.00 I dreamed about.

In high school, there was plenty of work and tests a year so catching up was no problem, but in college, failing one assignment may determine whether you make an A in the class or not. There is a saying among high school students stating, “You will do fine as long as you show up to class and do the work” but apparently this rule is only true to high school classes. Amongst all the classes I have taken so far, I have came to notice that just showing up and doing the work has an extremely small effect on with how well you do in class. What is important is showing up to participate and doing well on the assignments.

In college, there are too few assignments given out, it is a big gamble to decide to miss one of the assignments. Also, the amount of information you need to build up in one semester is greater and more detailed than what you need to learn in high school. For example in high school bio, all we knew about the cells was that it was like many eggs which bonded to each other to form an organism, in college bio, we went into details such as how cells bond to each other and what cells are made of. High school barely scraped the surface of the topics that I have been learning in college.

I have recently begun to notice my lack of good sense in high school. I regret not trying my best to learn and follow the advice of the teachers that cared about my future. It was a shock to be faced with failure after taking my first step into the scholastic field. I feel the high school does not do enough to prepare students who aspires to go to college.

Time isn't Money anymore,, Money is Status

In this day and age, one can easily notice how money is spent so scantily in the economy. There are many people who are rich in wealth but spend money very poorly. People often buy expensive goods that are well above the price they should be sold. The purpose of a pair of shoes is to keep a person’s foot safe and warm while they are walking or running. An average pair of shoes can cost about $35 but there are many people who will voluntary spend $100 or more on a pair of shoe because it “looks” good. Perhaps this is materialism and consumerism at its finest.

There are some people who can afford to lead this type of life style but there are also others who cannot. They may decide to buy a $40,000 BMW .when they can’t even afford to pay their bills. They don’t want to be known as “penny pinchers” so they spend lots of money to show off the wealth they don’t have. To freely spend money without thinking about the consequence is a foolish thing to do. Money you might not need now may come to use later. A great penny pincher once said, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” If everyone lived according to Benjamin Franklin’s philosophy, our economy will not be as flimsy as it is now.

Spending money appears to be a status symbol. When you look at someone wearing the same clothing brand as someone else, you are less likely to judge them financially, but if they are wearing brands you do not see anyone else wearing, you will be intrigued to find out rather they are either poor or really rich. People are like animals, animals they seek out friends and mates that are in good condition with excellent plumage. In the case of people, we seek out those who are attractive and wealthy. We spend more money on things because we feel money can buy happiness and respect.

The government has advocated for the “going green” policy for years. Recently, the government has been putting more effort in an effort to make citizens go green. Coincidentally, they started advocating again as soon as the United States entered a recession. Could this “going green” policy from the government be a “making green” scheme to revive the economy?

A nation usually enters a state of depression or recession when the government or bank is low on funds. Towards the end of the Bush administration, the nation was in a bad economic state. This was also around the time that green methods were being broadly advertised. The use of buses, warnings of global warming, pollution, recycling, and the list goes on and on.

Green products are not something everyone could afford, they tend to cost much higher than regular products. Contrary to what most people may think, something like a recycled notebook can cost up to a one dollar higher than a regular notebook. A water efficient washing machine can cost hundreds more than a normal washing machine and with the higher prices comes a higher tax which goes to the government.

The past will always repeat itself. Around twenty years ago during the Bush Sr. administration, the country was in its biggest debts in its history. At the same time, warnings concerning global warming and environmentally safe products surfaced. As soon as the matter of the national debts died down, nonbiodegradable products such as swiffer mops and disposable contacts were release to the public.

The knowledge of the future of global warming has been around for quite some times. The government only seems to appeal to helping the environment when they find it is convenient for them. Although they are killing two birds with one stone by helping the economy and environment at the same time, they should be more consistent with helping the environment. Perhaps after our recession has ended, new products such as disposable one time use electronics may be released to the public.